Paint and Bridges: Bike Improvements That Matter

A couple bike-related advancements have come to my attention in recent days.

One: The District Department of Transportation says it's going to to a lot more work with the Green Lane Project, which supports cities in their efforts to create protected bike facilities. That's awesome, and D.C.'s already moving forward with its second cycletrack in the proudly bike-friendly NoMa.

Unfortunately, only parts of one lane—L Street at 13th Street NW—will actually be green colored.* The Commission on Fine Arts had rejected the idea of painting the concrete on Pennsylvania Avenue, but I wish DDOT would consider expanding the practice more quickly—bold colors really signal to drivers that a bike lane is off limits.

And two: The new 11th Street bridge bike lane has opened! To date, every route from west of the Anacostia River into Ward 8 has been perilous and confusing—nearly impossible for the casual cyclist. The new route is quick and easy and lets the biker off smoothly into downtown Anacostia. It's a huge step forward in knitting the city together.

CORRECTION, June 5: Due to a miscommunication, this post originally incorrectly said that only one part of the L Street lane will be colored green. In fact, paint will be used on approaches to all intersections on L Street.

I love the new 11th Street Bridge bike lane -- and it's still just the temporary one! I rode it on Sunday and it is a HUGE improvement over the old one, which was not for the faint of heart and which was great for accessing Anacostia Park but not much else east of the river.

Michael

Adding the green lane coloring is great, but it needs to be used at all conflict points. In this example alone, it should start where the bike lane shifts across the left turn lane, and continue through the intersection. I appreciate everything DDOT is doing to add more bike infrastructure, but if they aren't going to adopt the Dutch guidelines for bike lane width and separation I at least hope they look to their guidelines for conflict management (i.e. use of color and intersection designs).